Problem
NCO social posts are written by hand each month and dated "3rd Tuesday of this
month" rather than an actual date and time. Drive them off the community calendar
instead, so each session gets a queued post with the real date and time zones.
Proposal
Subscribe a Google account to calendar@kubernetes.io, connect it to Zapier, then:
| Step |
Config |
| Trigger |
Google Calendar → Event Start, Time Before = 4 days |
| Filter |
Event Summary contains New Contributor Orientation |
| Filter |
Event Start day-of-month between 15 and 21 — suppresses the extra weekly [AMER] occurrences |
| Formatter |
Date/Time → Format on Event Begins, once per timezone needed |
| Action |
Buffer → Add to Queue (not share-now), one step per channel group |
Second Zap for the day-of reminder: same steps, Time Before = 1 hour.
Use Event Start, not a create-time trigger. NCO is a recurring series, so
create-time triggers fire once for the series, not per session — and Zapier
documents that they misfire on subscribed calendars, where Google returns a
1900-01-01 creation date.
The API key on kubernetes.dev is referrer-restricted and unusable by Zapier, which
authenticates to Google over OAuth. It still works for local checks:
curl -s -G -H 'Referer: https://www.kubernetes.dev/' \
'https://www.googleapis.com/calendar/v3/calendars/calendar@kubernetes.io/events' \
--data-urlencode "key=$GCAL_KEY" \
--data-urlencode "timeMin=$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" \
--data-urlencode 'singleEvents=true' --data-urlencode 'orderBy=startTime' \
--data-urlencode 'q=New Contributor Orientation'
Copy
Shorter form (≤280 chars):
Want to contribute to Kubernetes but not sure where to start?
Join the New Contributor Orientation on {{weekday}}, {{day}} {{month}} (two time zones) to learn how the project works, ways to contribute (code, docs & more), and connect with the community!
Add it to your calendar: k8s.dev/calendar
#Kubernetes
Day-of:
The #Kubernetes Community holds its New Contributor Orientation today at {{time_utc}} UTC & {{time_pt}} PT. New contributors welcome — no experience required.
Add it to your calendar: k8s.dev/calendar
LinkedIn can take a longer variant in its own Buffer step.
Risks
Buffer retires its legacy REST API on 2027-02-01
So we would need to look for alternatives for remediating this
Problem
NCO social posts are written by hand each month and dated "3rd Tuesday of this
month" rather than an actual date and time. Drive them off the community calendar
instead, so each session gets a queued post with the real date and time zones.
Proposal
Subscribe a Google account to
calendar@kubernetes.io, connect it to Zapier, then:New Contributor Orientation[AMER]occurrencesEvent Begins, once per timezone neededSecond Zap for the day-of reminder: same steps, Time Before = 1 hour.
Use
Event Start, not a create-time trigger. NCO is a recurring series, socreate-time triggers fire once for the series, not per session — and Zapier
documents that they misfire on subscribed calendars, where Google returns a
1900-01-01 creation date.
The API key on kubernetes.dev is referrer-restricted and unusable by Zapier, which
authenticates to Google over OAuth. It still works for local checks:
Copy
Shorter form (≤280 chars):
Day-of:
LinkedIn can take a longer variant in its own Buffer step.
Risks
Buffer retires its legacy REST API on 2027-02-01
So we would need to look for alternatives for remediating this